Saturday, November 28, 2015

When this bloggy thing of mine returns to nigh-daily status on Tuesday, December 1, it'll be with the first of five to seven days of reviews. Comic books. Movies and TV shows. Other stuff. I hope you'll enjoy these new columns.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends and readers. Sainted Wife Barb, Eddie and Kelly are three of the best people I know. They bring me great joy every day. My friends and readers are right up there as well.

I am thankful for my continued employment as a writer. Any creative career has its ups and downs, but the ups are worth it.

I am thankful for the many forums available to me, this blog highest among them. I hope that I can continue to amuse and inform you.

Friday, November 20, 2015

I have made no secret of the chaos I face when I look at my lengthy “to do” list and my equally lengthy bucket list of things I want to write before I kick the bucket. As much as I often accomplish in a day, it never seems to be enough to satisfy me.

Starting almost immediately, I’m taking a slightly new approach to my “to do” list. I’m taking it apart and concentrating on one area at a time. This won’t be at the expense of my paying gigs and the book I’m writing and my blogging and all the nifty stuff I post on Facebook. All that stuff will still get done in a timely fashion. This is about the other stuff.

I’m addressing two areas first: convention and store appearances and interview requests. By the middle of next month, I want to come as close to finalizing my 2016 appearance schedule as humanly possible. By the end of the year, I want to fulfill all outstanding interview requests. These are lofty goals, but I am determined to accomplish them.

Here’s how you can help...

If you are a convention promoter who has invited me to attend your event, please get in touch with me as soon as possible. Even if we have already been discussing those appearances. I will be checking all my previous communications with you, but it will help if I can hear from you in the next couple of weeks.

If you have requested an interview with me or already send me your interview questions, get in touch with me as soon as possible. I’ll be checking all by previous communications with you as well, but, again, it will help if I hear from you in the next couple of weeks.

I apologize for any previous delays in communicating with you. I’m hoping this new approach will help me clear these important-to-me-and-you items from my “to do” list as quickly as possible. Then I can move on to other projects and requests.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Most of you know I have a 200-plus-item bucket list of the things I want to write before I kick the bucket. However, I have another, less focused bucket list, which I have cleverly named “My Other Bucket List.” The items on that list include actual goals, flights of fancy, life-hacks and downright silliness.

I post each day’s item on my Facebook page and on Twitter. People seem to enjoy them, so, once a month, I compile them into a bloggy thing for your edification and entertainment.

Here’s the list for October:

October 1: Live in the French Quarter of New Orleans for a month. Spend a week living on a Mississippi riverboat.

October 2: Produce videos of celebrities performing the brilliant parody poetry of Frank Jacobs at conventions.

October 3: Convince Hollywood to do a Home Alone reboot in which a grandfather (Morgan Freeman) is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation. #bestmovieever

October 4: Have lunch with and spend an afternoon talking with Bill Watterson about comics and stuff.

October 5: Learn about Italian comics artists, write about them and perhaps collaborate with them.

October 6: Make time to reread Kurt Busiek’s Astro City from the start to present. It really is one of the best super-hero series of all time.

October 7: Work out a reasonable business plan that will make my convention appearances profitable for me.

October 8: Create new products to sell at conventions.

October 9: Prepare for both the best and worst outcomes in current discussions; accept either with grace and dignity.

October 10: Catch up on and remain current on all TV shows based on comic books. I’m five episodes of iZombie and one episode each of Gotham and Arrow away from achieving this goal. [Confession. I am presently further away from achieving this goal than I was when I originally posted this list item.].

October 11: Reduce my online footprint by 90% for the rest of the month while I clear my schedule for new projects.

October 12: Convince a publisher to collect all the Barker stories from Quality’s National Comics and The Barker titles.

October 13: Learn how to use my Kindle Fire. Start using my Kindle Fire. I’ve had it for almost a year.

October 14: Watch the new Doctor Who series from start to current I watched the first couple years and, despite loving them, stopped. Bad move on my part.

October 15: In early 2016, rejoin LinkedIn to see if I can actually use it to further my publishing plans.

October 16: Find a diplomatic way to tell my Facebook friends that Thunderbirds isn’t as good as they remember.

October 17: Looking ahead to 2016, lose a pound a week throughout the year. This will be a challenge.

October 18: Looking ahead to 2016, write a one-page pitch every day for one of the items on my bucket list of things I want to write before I kick the bucket.

October 19: Go on a cruise with Sainted Wife Barb...despite having watched literally hundreds of killer shark and sea monster movies.

October 20: Spend a week in the writers room of either The Daily Show with Trevor Noah or The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. They are my favorite TV shows.

October 21: Buy every item listed in the monthly Previews catalog.This is more of a fantasy, than a bucket list item.

October 22: Visit the sets of Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham, Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, iZombie and every other comic-book TV series. Because I’m an unapologetic fan.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

This will be my last update prior to my appearance this weekend at the Akron Comicon, Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, at the University of Akron’s Quaker Square. Show hours are 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm on Sunday. I’ll be there both days and, for the most part, you can find me at my table: C-8.

Today and tomorrow are going to be extremely busy for me. I have to write next Monday’s Tony’s Tips column for Tales of Wonder...and complete two other jobs for another client. I have to do all of my prep work for the convention, which includes errands like getting a haircut...and getting change and other supplies for the weekend.Busy, busy, busy.

All of the outstanding Vast Accumulation of Stuff orders were mailed yesterday. I'll be connecting the buyers later today with their tracking numbers.

My regular Facebook postings will cease on Friday morning. I’ll try to catch up on the birthdays, remembrances and historical notes on Monday while I recover from the convention.

Have a happy and safe weekend, my bloggy thing friends. I will be back as soon as possible with more stuff.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

I am very much looking forward to my appearance this weekend at the Akron Comicon, Saturday and Sunday, November 7-8, at the University of Akron’s Quaker Square. It’s been several months since I’ve been to a convention and this young event is one of the best. Be sure to check out the event’s amazing guest list at the convention website.

As of this writing, I am midway through the eight paying gigs I had on my desk at the beginning of this week. I’ll enjoy myself more at the convention if they are finished by the weekend. Forces of evil are clearly working against my achieving my goal because they keep trying to distract me from my work. It got so bad that, on Tuesday evening, I posted this on my Facebook page:

The answer to all the requests I've received in the past two days...requests to like some Facebook page, promote and support some Kickstarter project, donate money to an organization, vote for a Republican, subscribe to some magazine, hook someone up with an editor or publisher, do free consulting on your book or comic or screenplay, take part in a survey and so on...the answer to every one of those requests is NO! Those who annoy me should consider themselves cursed.

Do you feel that burning itch all over your body? Are you wincing from the pounding in your brain that makes your eyes water? Are you bumping into every sharp furniture corner in your dwelling? Did your cable or dish just stop working? Have you lost your Internet connection? Did that last fart make your ass and nose bleed? That's all me.

Keep annoying me and it gets worse.

I feel much better now.

Anyway...

My Akron Comicon appearance is being sponsored by Toys that Time Forgot, a spiffy vintage toy store that also sells comic books and more. Does this make me a vintage comics creator? That’s for you to decide, my friends.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Akron Comicon is this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, at the University of Akron’s Quaker Square. Please visit the event’s website for more details.

Toys that Time Forgot is sponsoring my appearance at Akron Comicon. The store is in Canal Fulton, a small town near Akron, Canton, and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. TTTF is one of the largest vintage toy stores in the Northeast United States. In addition to vintage toys and non-sport cards, owner and proprietor Dan Hare offers comic books, newer collectible toys, such as Transformers, G.I. Joe...one of the largest Star Wars collections in Ohio...new Marvel, DC, and McFarlane action figures...TV memorabilia and gaming cards.

This sponsorship is a first for me and I thank Hare and Toys That Time Forgot for their efforts on my behalf. If you have a comics-related business or store and would like to sponsor my appearance at some future event, e-mail me with your proposal.

On Saturday at Akron Comicon, I’ll be appearing on a Superman panel hosted by the Siegel & Shuster Society’s Mike Olszewski with Mike Sangiacomo of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, legendary comics writer Mike W. Barr and Brad Ricca, author of Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster--the Creators of Superman. I’m not a member of the Society, but I’m delighted to discuss one of the greatest comic-book characters of them all and, more to the point, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Since my own Black Lightning was created in Cleveland, I’m kind or sort of a distant creative cousin to Jerry and Joe.

I watched the second episode of Supergirl on CBG last night. When I resume full-scale blogging later this month, my first blog will be on Supergirl and Gotham. Look for it in mid-November or sooner.

This is going to be a busy week for me. Between today and the Akron Comicon - Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, at the University of Akron’s Quaker Square - I have eight paying gigs on my schedule. While that sounds more daunting than it is - most of the gigs will take half a day or less - I’ll still have to buckle down and make sure they all get finished. The week after the convention is going to be just as busy and perhaps more so. Just the same, I am going to attempt to post quick updates every morning before the Akron convention.

In an attempt to separate convention attendees from some of their hard-earned cash, I’ll be bringing those 1988 double-sided Superman posters I’ve been selling online, whatever items didn’t sell from my recent online Vast Accumulation of Stuff sales and a small box of Isabella-written items. I’m not yet set up to take credit cards at conventions - that’s on the bucket list for 2016 - so you will need cash. Or back issues I need of Candy (Quality), Gorgo, Kathy (Marvel), Konga, Reptilicus, The Barker (Quality), The Rawhide Kid and other Marvel westerns of the 1950s through the 1970s.

Over at my Facebook page, I hope to continue to post the birthday greetings, comic strip links, historical facts and remembrances I usually post. Aside from the links to the satirical Andy Borowitz pieces, occasional editorial cartoons and my friend Jeff Mariotte’s brilliant This Week in America, I hope to resist political posts until January. Still, the right-wing cray-cray is out there and I may not be able to avoid commenting on it or posting links to it.

Full-scale blogging won’t resume until the middle of next week, but I may take the Gotham/Supergirl piece I’ve been working on and run it as next Monday’s Tony’s Tips column at Tales of Wonder. I hope to post a new online Vast Accumulation of Stuff sales in a week or so and every two weeks after that.

In December, I hope to resume writing and posting my bloggy things on the Rawhide Kid and on the comics that were published in July of 1963, the month I decided I wanted to be a comic-book writer. I’ve got some other ambitious plans for online content here and in other venues, but those won’t roll out until 2016.

In more personal news...

While I’m a little overwhelmed by everything going on with my life and my work, I am in good mental and physical health. My temporary dentures are a pain in my mouth at times, but I’m working hard to get used to them. I’m generally a happy guy and I need a full mouth of teeth to express that to the world.